BEHIND THE SCENES WITH AFT #5 - GROWING PAINS OF AN UP AND COMING BAND

It was one of our first gigs and, as I recall, one of the worst. In fact, probably "the worst".

The promoter cannot be blamed for any of the worst moments, or the audience, or the venue. Most of the issues were all our own doing, well, almost all of them.

The show was last April in North Gower, just outside of Ottawa. My friend Aaron was the promoter and youth pastor. I saw his posting about Havenstance performing and I begged him to let AFT open the show, for which he graciously obliged.

In Belleville, PD Brad Linnard and me.

First problem - JP, our drummer, was waiting for the birth of his baby and couldn't make the show. A friend of a friend of a friend hooked us up with Shawn Sunshine Thiessen from Ottawa.

It was decided that we would arrive early, meet Shawn and run through the show in super-sonic speed. (Little did we know, this would not be the first time this would happen!)


Backstage, a rapid rehearsal, an hour before the show,
and 55 minutes before GI puked..

During our five hour journey, we stopped in Belleville for a radio interview at UCB and an Arby's party. (Two of us LOVE Arby's!)

Then, we arrived at the venue. As the opening act, we are the guests of the headliner, which means they control the show, the sound and how everything will play out.

Well, Havenstance was two hours late which put everything behind. Our soundcheck was about 10 minutes but given our experience level, we could have used three hours.

Sunshine, layin' down the beats.

Meanwhile, in the dressing room, Sunshine was listening to AFT songs on his iPod and getting briefed on the setlist by Pip Lucas. Sunshine kept his cool and willingly took direction. That was a blessing.

The show started. The intro theme "20th Century Fox" played and one by one the boys left the dressing room for the stage. Davey, Robbert....Pip goes last, so we waited for GI. "I can't! I'm gonna be sick!"  I said, "No you're not! Get on stage."  Pip ran out - without GI.

Our buddy Aaron Reimer. Nice shirt!

"A Little Louder" kicked in. Well, most of it. Ian's guitar was missing -as was GI. "Where's GI?!"

As the second chorus of "Louder" played, GI appeared in the dressing room, looking pale as a ghost. "I threw up..." he said.  I asked if he could do the show. He nodded yes.

As "Louder" ended, GI ran out on stage as if nothing happened and rocked the stage for the next 20 minutes! Looking at the photos, you would never know what had happened.

I love this photo. Aaron took it.

Sunshine kept the beat as best as he could but the sound mix on the stage wasn't good. It was hard for the boys to hear each other and having never played with AFT, Sunshine's nervousness was a bit visible.

Our sound guy, Cas van der Grift was mixing on the Havenstance soundboard which he was unfamiliar with. It added to the issues.

The last song couldn't come too soon.  It was "Salt And Light" - a truly horrible performance and we dropped the song from the set.

After the Havenstance set, we all met in the lobby meeting with fans and selling merch. Things calmed down. Aaron, the promoter, was very kind and encouraged us greatly.


After the show, the ride into Ottawa.

After the show we headed into Ottawa to ride in an elevator in which we nearly died. More in the next blog.